Why 60 is the sweet spot in life

The view of life from the edge of life is different to the view from the middle, writes Bernard Salt.

More than once my mother – who died at the age of 95 two years ago – made the observation that she didn’t think people really matured until the age of 60. Maybe she was trying to tell me something as I approached the age of 60. Then again, our weekly telephone calls were often reflective of the grand sweep of life since they covered children, grandchildren, and the difficulties of balancing work and family life.

Now, with adult children and a grandchild of my own, I can see the point my mother was making. The view of life from the edge of life is different to the view from the middle.

Your early years are to some extent a lottery, and by this I don’t mean whether you are born into a well-to-do household or not. I won that lottery, having been born into a loving and stable household. I was never hungry, cold or frightened. I knew I was loved. I appreciate that others weren’t as fortunate.

But more than this I was supported by parents who appreciated the value of education. My mother read to me and to my sister in bed. She played Scrabble with me as a pre-teen. She explained that a word had a Latin or a Greek root. (She had a Year 8 education.)

In your twenties, the top priorities are building skills, getting qualifications, and selecting a life partner. The thirties are all about having children, buying a house and making progress in a career.

I didn’t think about retirement until I was 47. All of a sudden it occurred to me that maybe the amount I had been contributing to superannuation wasn’t enough. In fact I had no real idea of how super worked. I just assumed that everything would be fine. By my fifties I was all across it. But even if I had focused on super at an earlier age, I’m not sure I would have altered course. The fifties are rightly concerned with planning for retirement and/or for the early post-work “lifestyle” stage of the life cycle.

For many Australians this decade, and the early sixties, is all about provisioning for life’s later years. But again this can depend on the economic circumstances of the times. Retiring from the workforce in 2019, for example, would have placed many Baby Boomers into the vortex of the pandemic. Three years of travel, of visiting children and grandchildren, were denied by the lockdowns. Then again, this generation of pre-retirees enjoyed almost 30 years of buoyant economic times before the pandemic. No generation is (or will be) completely free from the effects of economic turmoil across a 40-year working life.

We have all won the lottery of life by being born in, or choosing to live, study or work in, Australia. Plus, we live in an era which is, and we hope will remain, generally stable and prosperous.

Young people require housing. Retirees require certainty. Workers require surety of employment. All Australians require a robust system of social support for when they are impacted by random events like job loss or illness. What I sometimes think is missing, however, is a generous understanding of what is truly important at each stage of the life cycle. A discussion along these lines might help deliver better outcomes for all Australians.